US: If there is one state in the US where President George W. Bush needs a Republican victory in Tuesday's mid-term elections it is South Dakota.
The fight in South Dakota for one of its two US Senate seats is widely seen as a referendum on the Bush presidency. It has also become a proxy war between Mr Bush and his arch-rival in Washington, the Democratic Majority Leader in the Senate, Mr Tom Daschle, who is the senior senator for the state and is not up for re-election.
It was hardly surprising that when Mr Bush left the White House yesterday on a five-day campaign odyssey ending on election day, his first stop was Aberdeen, South Dakota, home town of Mr Daschle. It was his third stump visit to the midwestern state with a population of only 738,000 where Democratic Senator Tim Johnson is running neck and neck with Republican John Thune in a bitter and expensive contest for the Senate seat.
Mr Bush personally persuaded Mr Thune to run in the hope of overturning the Democrats' one-vote majority in the Senate and return it to Republican control.
Republicans have made the war on terror an issue. Their television advertisement declares: "al-Qaeda terrorists. Saddam Hussein. Enemies of America. Working to obtain nuclear weapons. Now more than ever, our nation must have a missile defence system to shoot down missiles fired at America. Yet Tim Johnson has voted against a missile defence system 29 different times."
Mr Johnson, however, may not be so vulnerable on the patriotism issue: he happens to be the only senator whose son fought in Afghanistan and may see action in Iraq.
But, as in other states across the US, Iraq is not near the top of the list of issues worrying voters, which is led in South Dakota by pensions, prescription drugs, the economy and education.
Other heavy hitters from both parties spread out across the US yesterday for the final days of campaigning in the mid-term elections that will not only decide control of both Houses of Congress but set the stage for the 2004 presidential race.
Democrats need to gain seven seats to seize control of the House of Representatives after eight years. The outgoing Senate - where a third of the seats are being contested - has 49 Republicans, 49 Democrats, one independent and one vacancy created by Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone's death in a plane crash in Minnesota.
The Democratic campaign has been re-energised by the selection of the former vice-president, Mr Walter Mondale (74), as replacement for Senator Wellstone. A Minneapolis Star-Tribune poll shows Mr Mondale, a respected party elder, leading the Republican, Mr Norm Coleman, by eight points.
Mr Coleman, also hand-picked by the White House, acknowledged that competing with Mr Mondale was "like running against Mount Rushmore . . . I am running against an icon."
The Democrats' hope of defeating Mr Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, in another battle regarded as a major test for the Bush Presidency has, however, sufered a setback.
Governor Bush has widened his lead over the Democratic candidate, Mr Bill McBride, to 51-43 per cent from 49-44 per cent as the McBride campaign stalls, according to the latest polls. President Bush has invested heavily in the state and will campaign again with his brother on Saturday.